The present invention relates to a vehicle headlamp (hereinafter simply referred to as a headlamp) equipped with a shade.
In many cases, a shade is fitted to a headlamp as a member for shielding the light emitting from a bulb in a controlled manner. Although the shielding of the light directly emitted from the bulb in a forward direction of the headlamp is a representative example of the shielding control performed by the shade, the shade also shields the light which travels from the bulb to a specific region on a reflecting surface of a reflector.
One example of the latter case is control for the shielding of the light which travels from the bulb to lower left and right regions on the reflecting surface of the reflector (hereinafter simply referred to as incident light control). The incident light control is intended for creating cut lines in the distribution pattern of luminous intensity of auxiliary light. More specifically, the shade creates the cut lines, by itself, or the shade makes the cut lines which are created by the bulb, be more sharp.
In general, the shade comprises light-shielding section for shielding the light emanated from a bulb, and mount legs for supporting the light-shielding section on the reflector. In order to provide mounting strength for the shade which offers sufficient resistance to the vibration of a vehicle or impact loads, it is desirable to attach the mounting legs to an upper portion of the shade (it is further desirable to attach the mounting legs to several locations including the upper portion of the shade).
In the shade designed to shield the light which enters the lower right and left regions on the reflecting surface, the light-shielding section is formed so as to shield the light that travels from the bulb to the lower left and right regions on the reflecting surface. Therefore, the mounting legs cannot be connected to the upper portion of the shade where the light-shielding section is not present. As a result, there is insufficient mounting strength for the shade.
Further, in many cases, the mounting legs are fixed to the reflector in the vicinity of a bulb insertion aperture formed in the rearmost portion of the reflector. In a case where a plurality of mounting legs are connected to the rear end of the light-shielding section, it is difficult to ensure a space for fixing the mounting legs because of limitations of space due to the presence of a bulb fitting structure provided in the rearmost portion of the reflector.